This was one of the very few (hard copy) scrapbooking or papercrafting magazines left, if not THE last, and was published in the UK. I would buy it sometimes if I could find it at Barnes and Noble but that had become more difficult lately.

It was hard to confirm this rumor online because everything on their website and social media looks like business as usual. But a message board poster from the UK stated on 05-07-15, “I have been on the phone with the publishers this morning and they confirmed that Scrapbook Mag has ceased publication and the current issue on sale (no 89) is the last one!!”

Of course, this leads to the cries of dismay and sadness, followed by the realization that we as scrappers bring this on ourselves. Yes, the internet is an amazing and wonderful source of inspiration. But if you only or mostly consume free content, those who provide paid content can’t make a living from it and have to fold. I think it’s a very interesting discussion to have.

It seems that in turning the reins over to the everyday scrapper we are almost shooting ourselves in the foot (or Tiny Attaching ourselves in the foot? paper piercing ourselves in the foot?). So many of us are now providing scrapbooking content and inspiration for free via blogs, YouTube videos, and even free classes. Which is awesome! But in turn – and over time – all that free content takes away the ability for others (who may be providing superior content, more organized content, magazine content we can hold in our hands, etc) to provide paid content.

It’s something that shifts and moves every day like the sand under your feet at the waves’ edge . . . one of those Catch-22s of life, I suppose.

What do you think? How do you feel about the whole issue? And, no, that wasn’t meant to be a pun but if it makes you smile, I’ll claim it :)

New tags and things by Craft Smith – made of burlap, cork, metal, canvas, and denim

Project-Lifey card and embellishment kits. In my store, these are in the back by framing and there are matching 8.5 x 11 photo albums below them.

Super cute new MAMBI paper pad

WITH HEARTS!! <3

Love this pretty new K&Company postbound album – great colors and design

Some Spring-y new mini paper pads and die cut packs by Recollections

Tabbed index cards by Recollections, great for organizing photos or Project Life cards

Hey, I think someone asked me a long time ago where I got the scrapbook page display thingee in my office. I forgot to answer but when I saw these at Michaels, I remembered that I forgot. So sorry, whoever that was! Yep, I got it at Michaels and they still have ’em.

Over in the home deco section, there was also some cute new stuff –

So that’s what’s what at Michaels these days.

Further down in the same mall, there’s a Bev Mo (do you have these where you live? I call them “college students’ heaven” stores). I’m driving along and got a little bit twitterpated – CRAFT EVENT! – before I realized, “Duh. It’s Bev Mo. Must mean craft beer.” Bummer, dude. Really harshed my mellow.

As I talked about HERE, my scrapbook space / home office / kids’ homework area was badly in need of some cleaning up and organizing. I was considering “going for broke” with a batch of free time I had coming up. In the end, I didn’t have as big a block of time as I’d hoped but I decided to try and make a dent in things anyway.

Although I didn’t do a major re-haul and purge, I did get my whole scrapbook office cleaned, dusted, and vacuumed. I got a lot of things thrown away and put away and tidied up.

Major accomplishment: I can see the floor and my desktop again! Woot!

Since there wasn’t a huge amount of progress, I’ll just share a couple of Before and Afters.

I washed the lids on all the jars so they sparkle now. I dusted everything, did a little bit of rearranging, and purged a little. Overall, it doesn’t look that much different. I did move the turquoise deco items in the middle over here from my desk but I don’t like how it looks; too crowded. I have some shelves to hang one of these days and most of that will be moved to the shelves.

This is a whole view of the room.

BEFORE

AFTER

You can tell that I generally just straightened up and cleaned. I can see the surface again of the coffee table, homework table, and – like I said – my scrapbook desk. I even cleaned off a patch near my work/home office desk and it’s nice to be better organized there.

It feels really good every time I walk in the room. It’s nice to know – when I have my next block of free time – I can actually scrapbook. Now, isn’t that a rare feeling? LOL I hope this is a little inspiration if you need it – to do a little tidying of your own space so you can get scrappin’! I would love to hear about any progress you’ve been making lately; feel free to link to photos or blog entries in Comments :)

Waaayyyy back in 2011, I decided to use the “going for broke” method of scrapbook space organization. You can read about it HERE and then in subsequent posts. The point of going for broke is that you remove most/all of your supplies from your space so you’re not tripping over them and moving piles onto other piles as you work. Also, you try not to bring it all back in = PURGE!

I never seem to entirely finish these so-called organization projects to the point where I can show off some braggy photos of my sparkly, perfect space. But I do make progress and it’s always better than where it started. So that’s good, right?

Well, my scrapbook space / work-from-home office / homework area for the kids is so flippin’ out of control, it’s driving me crazy! It may be time to Go for Broke again. As I work today, I’m running it through my mind and trying to convince myself to do it.

My space at this point is approximately:
– 70% unorganized scrapbooking, photos, and memorabilia
– 20% unorganized work and personal files, papers, magazines, etc.
– 5% unorganized school books and school supplies
– 5% random things that don’t belong in here (like the Old Navy order I got last week)

My requirements for “going for broke” are:
– A day or two with no work pending
– My husband being out of the house ;)
– Being caught up on sleep so I have enough energy . . . and COFFEEEEEEE!!!

I do have a couple of days coming up where this all looks like a strong possibility, so send me some good organizational vibes, and let’s hope it happens!

If it does, I’ll post Before and Afters, of course. Here is one recent photo, just so you can see what kind of trouble I’m in here:

If you don’t hear from me on this topic again soon, be a decent person and let me slink away with my tail between my legs, will you?? If I do manage to accomplish this feat and I share my (embarrassing!) Before’s and (AMAZING!) After’s, I expect the appropriate ooh’s and aah’s from you. It’s the least you can do, really. Har.

Here’s a round-up of some cool scrappy things I saw this week and want to share with you!

– If you’re thinking about downsizing your scrapbooking in 2015 – like, literally, to 6×8 or 8×8 – check out Blackbird Darlin’s POST. She does a great job of explaining how she’ll be doing it this year and what she learned from last year.

– I got to meet Nancy Nalley last year at CHA. She’s super nice and wicked smart, just like you’d expect. Anyhow, she goes to every CHA then writes great recaps. You can check them out on SCRAPBOOK UPDATE, including her Top 10 Picks from CHA.

– If you’ve been one of the many waiting for the Simple Stories “Life Documented” line to finally clear customs, you’re in luck!

From Simple Stories:

After 7 weeks sitting on the dock in Southern California due to union/labor issues, we are SO EXCITED to announce that the container carrying our Life Documented Planner & Scrapbook collections has arrived in our warehouse! We are working as quickly as possible to ship product to our distributors and retailers. Watch for the Life Documented Planner & Scrapbook collections to hit your favorite retailer soon!

Phew!

– Remember when I talked about Create and Craft USA? I was watching Bravo this weekend and on comes a Create and Craft commercial! It was so cool. It was a cute, crafty bit and at the end it advertised how they’re live online 24/7 and on DISH Channel 221 11-5 ET. (We have DISH so that’s what it mentioned, but they’re also on DirecTV at the same time, Channel 85/222). I think I have yet to catch any presentations that are specifically scrapbooking but I keep holding out hope :)

I think C and C were very smart to advertise on Bravo network, don’t you? There’s a lot of overlap between “Scrapbookers” and “Real Housewives Fans”, LOL. Count me in! Every city, every season . . .

– Yeah, I’m mostly into pocket page scrapbooking these days but when time allows, I still bust out some 2-pagers. I’m always on the hunt for inspiration, especially layouts that use a lot of photos. Check out this BEAUTIFUL layout from the EVALICIOUS BLOG:

Isn’t it lovely? I’m on a scrapbooking forum with the lovely Rona who created this layout. She recently became the Design Team Coordinator for Evalicious and just prior to that, she’d organized an Evalicous puffy sticker group buy for us. Which reminds me . . . I still need to post my pics from that. You can see lots more pics and some close-ups of Rona’s layout at the link above.

I know you love Thickers so I wanted to make sure you know that Scrapbook Steals has them on sale today! Check it out here.

If I didn’t already own 4,698 packs of Thickers (okay, that’s an exaggeration. kind of), I’d get these:

and these – so cute!

How do you store your Thickers? I keep mine on their sides in a bin. Or bins. Whatever I feel like admitting to at the moment.

If you don’t have a good system yet, check out the storage created by American Crafts, which is all 25% off today:

After seeing the video on their site, I’m considering switching to this binder system. It would be so much easier to take to crops and retreats. And would look pretty on my shelf, which is an important consideration, don’t you agree?

If you’re interested, get a move on. Sale expires in 8 hours and things are already selling out!

I have Raskog Envy. Yes, that’s the official diagnosis. I went to a doctor and everything ;) And made a Pinterest board.

Ever since they came out years ago, I’ve wanted a Raskog cart from Ikea to use in my scrapbook room. I think I could totally rock my Project Life organization in one of these babies!

Although it comes in a few colors . . .

. . . and many even spray paint it . . .

. . . I reallyreallyreally want that Robin’s Egg Blue one.

Sigh.

I don’t live near an Ikea and it hasn’t been in the budget yet to get it online. The cart is $50 and shipping to me is another $14.

Sigh.

Now, in what may be great news for you if you’re in the same boat: A Raskog cart knock-off has appeared at Sam’s Club!!! In a pretty light blue – check it out:

I have a sweet online scrappy friend (Hollah Ann!) who happens to have BOTH versions of this cute cart. She was kind enough to take photos of them next to each other so we can see how they compare.

From what I’m hearing, the Raskog trays are 3/4″ wider and 1/2″ deeper. And the Raskog is a little sturdier with heavier metal – especially the bottoms of the trays. That last photo really shows the color difference. At around $35, the Sam’s cart is about $15 less than the Raskog (around $50) – plus shipping if you don’t have an Ikea nearby. So this may be a good bet!

Scrappers are reporting finding the Raskog knock-off carts in various places in their Sam’s Club stores – including near the front by the patio furniture (sometimes still in box and not assembled/obvious) and even still on pallets above the breakfast food section. Here, let me make this easier for you: Item Number 930442. Just give that to a Sam’s employee and they can check the computer to find the location in the store, if they have any :)

Personally, I’m holding out for the Ikea Raskog version. The light blue of the Sam’s cart is pretty but the aqua of the Ikea cart is my favorite color. Plus, I’m willing to pay extra for bigger and stronger trays.

Happy Shopping and Storing!

PS: If you’d like a silver knock-off, more shelves, or are just dying to pay MORE than the Raskog, check out the Jayden Metal Shelf Units from Cost Plus World Market :)

I haven’t posted since 12-17; wow, 2 whole weeks! That’s a long time between posts for me. To see what I was up to while I was gone, check out my personal blog HERE.

Now that the holidays are (almost) over, I have lots of photos and memories to scrap. I’ll bet you do, too! I ended up with mostly iPhone photos this year but that’s okay. Better than nothing, yet still “participated in the moments”, as they say.

I did get some organizing done around the house (again, see my other blog if you want deets). But my combo home office / scrapbook room remains a disaster. Whoa dude! It’s a real wreck and is next on the agenda. I have good organizing systems in place for everything, they’re just mostly buried right now by Christmas cards received, memorabilia and photos I cleaned out from the bedrooms, and some ongoing projects like changing over my long-term scrappy storage from open bins (i.e., dust collectors) to 12×12 Iris containers. {I talked about it a little bit HERE}.

If you’ll be working on organizing your scrapbook space in 2015, stay tuned! I might just have something for ya’ ;) Tease, tease, tease . . .

Also in 2015, I plan to be more active with the Scrapbook Obsession Blog. I have some exciting things in store and I hope you’ll come along!!! I honestly wasn’t ever that crazy about 2014. But I have some kinda’ good feeling about 2015. I think it’s going to be a rockin’ fun year, don’t you?!?! Let’s make it so :)

I’m kind of a lapsed 12×12 scrapbooker at the moment (don’t shoot!). I’m just at the stage in life where time is at a premium (family time, work, kids’ activities, etc.) and I very rarely get time to scrapbook these days. So the majority of my scrapbooking right now is “pocket page scrapbooking” aka “Project Life type scrapbooking” aka “divided page protector scrapbooking.”

For me, scrapbooking is about memory keeping – and I have horrible long-term memory. So I really count on my scrapbooks to help me remember all those awesome (and not so awesome) moments in my life. I like the ability with pocket page scrapbooking to get photos in albums and get the memories down. It’s not always the fanciest or more artistic method but it accomplishes MY most important goal at the moment and I love it. I figure “someday” I can go back and do regular layouts and I’ll have the photos in one place and some journaling already done as a starting point.

With all this pocket page scrapping – and some regular 12×12 layouts thrown in – I really go through the regular and divided page protectors. I need a good way to organize them and have them handy; when I get time to scrap, I want to SCRAP! I’ve tried various methods, including:

– Keeping them in the boxes/packages they come in stored vertically on a bookshelf.

– Storing them on horizontal shelf cubes like the ones sold at MICHAELS.

– Leaning them in a large bin under my desk.

Well, they all seemed like good ideas at the time, LOL! But for various reasons, they didn’t work out for me (hard to access, got dusty, hard to find the type of protector I needed, etc.).

I finally found the method that works for me: Storing page protectors in 12×12 albums! If you’d like to give it a try as well, here are my tips:

1. Choose a good sturdy 12×12 D-ring album to use.

For now, I’m using a turquoise Sn@p! album for my divided protectors and a light green Project Life album for my plain protectors; I had to separate them because I have so many to store! Eventually, I’ll need those albums for projects so I’ll get some others to replace them. I’m thinking of getting 2 or 3 of the 12×12 Project Life albums when they’re on sale at Michaels in a cute pattern to set them apart from my solid color WRMK albums that house scrapbook pages.

2. Gather all page protectors, take out of boxes and packages, and place into piles by type.

They’re very slippery and hard to deal with. Find a large space like your bed or an open table if you can.

3. For each type of page protector, straighten the pile so all the binder holes line up, and put a large binder clip along the right edge halfway down.

Don’t worry, this is temporary and won’t damage your page protectors if you remove it quickly.

I use mostly Becky Higgins Design A and BH/WRMK (6) horizontal 4×6’s so those go first.

Tip: Even though the page protectors are clipped together, they still will slide a bit and not line up perfectly. Try inserting the center binder hole first; once that’s lined up, the other 2 holes will line up and insert more easily.

5. Separate page protector types within the album using your divider of choice.

I use sheets of 12×12 thin white paper to reduce bulk/weight of the album. You could also use Project Life Designer Dividers; a plain page protector with a sheet of cardstock, patterned paper, and/or a label; etc. Personally, I wouldn’t spend a lot of time or energy on the dividers. Once you start using this binder, you’ll get a great feel for where in the binder your desired page protector is and the dividers become kinda’ unnecessary :)

6. Remove the binder clips and let your page protectors be freeee! And you are DUNZO.

Now you can enjoy the ease of having all your various page protector configurations in one place and finding the exact type you need while you scrapbook.

The only downsides I’ve found to this method are:

– A 12×12 album full of page protectors is VERY heavy.

– You need a large space to have the binder open while you’re working, unless you don’t mind pulling it out and opening it each time you need a new type of protector.

Even with the downsides, I still think this is the best method for storing 12×12 page protectors. They’re so slippery and hard to deal with, I’ve found that having them secured into a D-ring album is the only way to consistently access them without going cray-cray.

If you found this helpful or have another page protector organization idea to share, please leave a Comment! Just click on the link under the title to this post :)

I heard on the 2 Peas Refugees board that Walmart is now carrying We R Memory Keepers (WRMK) divided page protectors and “Project Life” style card sets! Here’s a photo provided by ~KatieAnna~ (I don’t see a link to her blog, Pinterest, etc or I’d share it here):

Isn’t that cool!?! She thinks the page protector packs were $3.97 and card sets were $4.97. I haven’t been to Walmart yet to see these for myself and confirm that price, but as soon as I do, I’ll let you know.

Or if YOU have seen any WRMK items at Walmart, please leave a comment below! I’d love to know which card sets they have and also how widely Walmart is carrying these items.

Unfortunately, they don’t appear to be carrying the WRMK albums but maybe they will in the future. You can also find those at Target for only $20.

I just heard from a scrappy friend in Southern Cal that her Tuesday Morning has a BUNCH of BASIC GREY! Lots of embellishments: brads, ephemera, toothpick flags, resins, stamp stickers, die cuts, journal pads, etc. Most are 99 cents. No paper though, boo! I haven’t bought much BG lately (most of my scrappy dough has been going to AMERICAN CRAFTS paper, storage items, and WRMK albums) – so now I have to make ANOTHER trip to Tuesday AM, darn! ;)

Sorry, I don’t have any photos of the Basic Grey to share but it reminded me that I never posted all these Tuesday Morning scrappy pics I took last month.

GLITTER, GLITTER GLUE, and PENS

TIM HOLTZ and 7 GYPSIES

SCRAPPY STORAGE BOXES

EMBELLIES plus that cute little HEART BURLAP BOX caught my eye

STICKERS and EMBELLISHMENTS

SO MUCH PAPER that it was overwhelming. I couldn’t even look at it all!

PAGE PROTECTORS and ALBUMS

STUDIO CALICO and PEBBLES

Don’t forget to look on the top shelf – all that PAPER and CARDSTOCK!

Look in the other craft-y areas too. There are scrapbooking items mixed in.

Great price on a set of WRMK PUNCHES

The glare is terrible but those are American Crafts Flutterbys on the top left.

Great items for SCRAPBOOK STORAGE

Be careful. Lots of crooked embellishments! I wanted those wine ones but they were horrible! :(

MORE STUFF

And, just for my Peep friends, BIRDY BLANKETS!

I have even MORE photos from Tuesday Morning from a more recent visit to their scrapbook section. I need to get them uploaded, then I’ll blog those too so stay tuned! Remember when I said that Tuesday Morning had a NEW CRAFTS BUYER? Well, I’d say she’s doing a great job, wouldn’t you?

A couple of months ago, I found a great deal on these Cropper Hopper Sticker Envelopes.

As you can see, they were normally $6.99 marked down to $1.50 so I did what any bargain-lovin’ scrapper would do: I bought them all! There were 10 packages so I got 30 Sticker Envelopes for $15 (instead of $70 at full price). WAHOO!!

They sat in my scraproom for a while because I wasn’t sure how I wanted to use them. I guess they’re intended to just store stickers, maybe by topic? But that ain’t how I roll, baby.

I thought about making up kits with them. You know, pull all the paper, stickers, alphas, embellishments, and photos for a single project. But in the end, I decided to use them for storing a whole collection.

In this case, I stored all the October Afternoon “Apple Cider” collection that I talked about HERE.

This is what it looks like from one side:

And here is the other side:

All of the 12×12 papers are in the large inside pocket. The stickers and embellishments fit so nicely in the outside pockets. I’ll put a label on that top tab. {For everything in my scrap space, I used an older version of this Brother P-touch Labeler – it’s perfect!}

I love that I can see the whole collection at a glance. I also love that these pockets fit inside my Cropper Hopper paper holders, which I sort by manufacturer. So of course this Sticker Envelope goes into the October Afternoon paper holder. I use an older version of these Cropper Hopper Paper Holders.

Like I said, I store most of my scrapbook stuff by manufacturer. For some lines, I just have paper but for others I have paper + embellishments. I’ll be going through my CH paper holders and transferring those full collections into these. It’ll be great to just grab a Sticker Envelope and get to work :)

I don’t belong to a scrapbook kit club anymore but if I did, I’d use these Sticker Envelopes to store new kits when they arrived. It would be helpful in “killing a kit” I would think. You could see each little piece and more likely use it. Then when most of the kit had been used, you could separate the items into your regular storage methods. “Oh no! The Sticker Envelope is empty! Whatever will I do?! Ah, time to buy a new kit!” Heh.

I got these Sticker Envelopes at Beverly’s Crafts. If you’re in California, you can check HERE to see if there’s a store near you. Maybe your store will have them, too. In mine, they weren’t in Scrapbooking but were in the big Clearance section.

I first heard about this a couple of weeks ago from my dear scrapbook friend, MISS ANGIE.

Who heard from the manager of her Tuesday Morning store that they had a new buyer who is a CRAFTER and that we could expect their crafting section to expand. She was said to be tenacious and was seeking out new suppliers of crafting supplies.

And we rejoiced.

To confirm that the rumor seems to be true, lookie what just landed in my inbox:

BLADOW!

And the scrappers all over America who live in smaller areas and have no LSS, Joann, or Hobby Lobby and not only just a Michaels but a small, slow-to-get-new-stuff Mike’s DID A HAPPY DANCE to hear this news.

If you’re happy about this as well, PLEASE find Tuesday Morning on your choice of social media and thank them – I’m off to Tweet them myself. Let’s show them what a nice little band of shoppers we are and what a good move this was (wink wink).

– So love to see our scrappy girl ELSIE making waves in the big world!

– Time for Lain’s free September scrapinar. Just click here for more details and sign up, if you like. If you can’t make the scrapinar time, you’ll get a free replay to watch at your leisure – but you have to register beforehand.

– Have you seen these YEARBOOK PRINTABLES by Project Life? What a fun and easy yearbook you could make for thuh kiddo!

I hope you’re enjoying a fabulous and relaxing Labor Day Weekend, if you’re in the States. If you haven’t done any shopping yet, make sure to check out my post with a bunch of scrapbook-related sales and discounts RIGHT HERE.

I’m going to try something new here @ Scrapbook Obsession Blog – a weekly round-up post of cool things I saw online this week that I think will be right up your alley. And away we go!

– Sounds like the first CHA PAPER ARTS SHOW was a success. Do you think they’ll keep doing them?

– ECHO PARK has posted some videos showing how to use their new “Designer Dies and Stamps.”

– This COOL ITEM is supposed to be for party tabletops but I’m picturing it being very useful on my scrapbook desk!

– Simple Stories has been putting out some great “Inspiration E-Books” for each of their new lines. Check out the latest one HERE.

– Don’t forget to use these GREAT COUPONS by tomorrow, Monday 09-01-14!

– BIG NEWS from October Afternoon, one of my favorite lines in the whole scrappy world. {There was some message board speculation that they were closing or selling to another company because of their, um, business practices? But, no, that’s not it . . . Phew!}

– Lisa at “Blackbird Darlin'” blog is making a Project Life album in 6×8. Check out her progress HERE.

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As I talked about in THIS post, I was lucky enough to find an AWESOME scrapbook store while in Arizona recently. {If you haven’t read that post yet, ya’ gotta’ if you want a laugh}.

Now it’s time to show you the haul from my trip to Scrapbooks Etc. in Mesa, Arizona.

Here’s the bag of pretties I brought home :) Note: If you click on any of the photos below, they will enlarge.

So, I took the photos, downloaded and edited them, then realized I forgot to include the Kaisercraft cards in this photo. So pretend they’re there, mmm kay? The budget I’d set for myself was $30 and you can see that I went over that just a teensy bit. Wonderful restraint though, if I do say so myself!!

They had a sale going: Buy 10 sheets of $1 paper and get the 11th free. Well, it was my duty to buy 10 sheets of paper, right?? Right.

First, 5 sheets of October Afternoon “Daily Flash”. I officially love and, yes, want to marry that sheet on top with the distressed teal stripes. Well, it would be a plural marriage because I need the bokeh paper in my life always as well.

Here are the backs of those same OA papers:

Here’s 1 sheet of American Crafts “Daydreamer” from Dear Lizzy. Don’t worry; I’m not going to say AGAIN how much I love hearts. Because you already know I love hearts. I say I love hearts ALLLL the time. I mean, why do you need to hear again how much I love hearts?!?! You really don’t <3 <3 <3

Next are 5 sheets of Basic Grey “Capture”. My favorite (OBVI!) is the turquoise on one side and turquoise/green on the other. I don’t like being faced with Sophie’s Choice, so I just bought 3 sheets of it – 2 to use for a turquoise background on a 2-pager and 1 to use the striped side.

Are they not lovely!?!? I adore this color scheme. I do a lot of beach pocket page scrapping and these will be perfect-a-mundo!

The flowery bits are not my favorite but, ya know, every card has 2 sides, LOL. I love everything else about these cards. The distressed teals and beiges, sayings, and other designs with banners, dots, chevrons, etc.

I also got 5 sheets of Echo Park “Fun In The Sun” – bright, cheerful pastels, bikes, cameras, trees, and flowers. These were only 49 cents a sheet; I think I found them on the bargain table I mentioned in my last post.

Here are the other sides of the Echo Park papers. This will be a great line to use for Project Life pages.

The only garage sale item I left the store with: a pack of paper for only 5 buckaroonies! It came with 37 cardstock-weight sheets of paper. I don’t love all of them and there are lots of duplicates but, at a mere 13 cents per sheet, I’m not complaining :)

Here are the backs of the same papers above.

I batched together my 3 favorite sets. I don’t know who makes these but they look lovely together and I like the mix of patterns and color. Very useable, don’t you think?

These papers aren’t labeled either but they’re great for Halloween layouts.

My absolute faves and why I bought the pack: These papers from the Teresa Collins “Memories” line. Such fresh colors and designs. The paper is very heavy and also textured. I imagine these must retail for AT LEAST $1 per sheet and since I got 5 sheets, there’s the $5 I spent on the whole pack. The rest of the papers are just scrapbook gravy :)

At $10, that took a big chunk of my budget but totally worth it. I *had* to have the wood veneer 3×4 and 4×6 cards plus the whole set is just so stinkin’ pretty.

Then I got the 2 little bags (they were sold seperately but look like Allison Kreft?) and the Doodlebug coffee stickers. ‘Cuz I might, um, be a little addicted to coffee. And take photos of it. And scrapbook them. Just maybe.

PS: I did hit up one other store while in Arizona. I’m not gonna’ pretend it was as awesome as this store but I did manage (ahem) to find some more scrappy goodies. Stay tuned for another store review and scrapbook haul!

Check this out: Did you know you can get a FREE PREVIEW of Ali Edwards’ upcoming “Hello Story” class?!?! It comes with videos, a very nice .pdf handout, supply lists, and transcripts.

Then if you decide to sign up for this very cool class, you can get a 15% discount using code TIMEWITHALI through 04-10-14 (which is a full week AFTER the course starts, for you slow-committers, LOL).

I’ve done the math and with the discount it comes out to $8.25/week at full price or only $7/week with the discount. I love to share these discount codes with you because I know classes (especially by top scrapbookers like Ali) can seem expensive. But when you use the discount and break down the per week cost, I think you’ve got a deal here.

You can see from the free 1-week sample shared above what a quality course this is. If you like, you can sign up for “Hello Story” right HERE.

The 12-week class runs from 04-03-14 to 06-25-14 so you don’t have a lot of time to make up your mind. On the good side, when you decide to take the class, you don’t have that long to wait for it to start!

Please let me know if you sign up so I can live vicariously through you! I’d love to post your review on thuh blog afterward as well, if you’d be so kind :)

Also, let me know what you think of the free sample!

PS: Sheesh. I just noticed that immediately upon sign-up for the course, you get some freebies:

In the pre-classroom, which is available instantly upon registration, you’ll receive Ali’s Storyology downloadable class (valued at $14), which is the perfect warm-up for Hello Story. You’ll also receive a set of 50 downloadable Random Fact Journal Cards (valued at $5.49)!

I’m listening to Ali’s free sample now as I type this blog post. Yep, just me and Ali, hangin’ out. Even if you don’t take the class, you’d be a silly willie not to grab the free preview.

As I talked about HERE, it was time for me to get some new storage for my expanding collection of washi tape. Just like with my PROJECT LIFE CARD STORAGE, I need cheap, easy and practical. Requirements for my washi tape storage are:

– Not expensive; no more than $20 total

– Easy to use; no pulling tape rolls off dowels, walking across the room to access them, etc.

– Practical; keeps the dust out and easy to see what I have

I looked all over Target for a new storage solution but had no luck. My next stop was MICHAELS craft store. Armed with my 40% off coupon, I was pretty confident I’d find something I loved.

And I was right! Scroll to the very bottom of this post if you can’t wait to see my final washi tape storage solution :)

But let’s start at the beginning, shall we? Here is what I started out with:

Like I said in my last post, I originally had my washi in an open tray on my desk along with my Project Life cards and embellishments. Due to dust and (ahem) outgrowing that storage, I moved the PL embellishments – icon stickers, twine, stamps, and chalk ink pads – to one of these super handy “Bag in Bag” purse organizers.

As I packed for my RETREAT in January, I threw all my washi into this extra plastic shoebox from Mike’s that I had standing by for more Project Life / MAMBI / Sn@p! card storage. Or whatever. I mean, it’s not like I’m going to keep obsessively buying more cards and need a place to store them. ‘Cuz that would be crazy when I already have so many. Um, yeah.

The washi tape rolls were easy enough to access in the shoebox above ^ while I scrapped but I wanted a better storage solution. They didn’t stay very neat and there was a lot of wasted space in there.

Let’s try something new:

At Michaels, I picked up this storage piece first. It’s an Iris Scrapbook Project Case meant for storing 12×12 pages in progress, I suppose.

Liked: It was shallow enough to mostly spread out my tapes into a single level so they’d be easy to see and access, yet the case is tall enough to close over the thicker tapes like the red and green one on the bottom right above. There’s even room to stack 2 thinner tapes.

Didn’t like: Took up too much desk space and couldn’t see washi tape color/pattern as well when they’re lying flat versus on their sides.

My other purchase from Michaels were these 2 smaller cases, and this is the solution I ended up going with. I put cool colors in one and warm in the other.

At Michaels, the 6″ x 6″ Iris Mini Project Case was $4.99 minus $2.00 with all scrapbook storage 40% off = $2.99 {didn’t even need to use my coupon!}. So there’s the “cheap” requirement fulfilled; only $6 total. You can’t beat that with a stick.

Oh my! That is one pretty washi collection, if I do say so myself. All that color and design and possibility makes me so HAPPY!

As you can see, the lids closed easily over all sizes of washi tape. My “easy to use” requirement was met – no dowels, no pulling them off of hangers or spools, etc. Just reach in, grab the roll(s) you need, and put ’em back when you’re done.

I kept the label on so you could see what exactly the item is called, in case you’d like to replicate this washi storage :) It’s so funny because looking back, I mentioned way back HERE that I loved this little case and wanted to find a use for it.

Voila! Mission accomplished!

Here are my cute little washi cases stacked together on my desk, just to the left of me as I scrap. My pretty tape is secure and protected. So my “practical” requirement is fulfilled.

To the right is the Bag in Bag I mentioned above. On top of the washi cases is a small plastic ‘shoebox’ from Mike’s with enamel dots and some smaller embellishments that didn’t fit in the Bag in Bag. That’s another cheap, easy, and practical storage solution I love <3 Hope you find this helpful! How do you store your washi tape?

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